As some of you may know, there was a huge Olympic Collectors Fair in Chicago last weekend. Honav were in attendance and were promoting their London 2012 collection. They displayed a vast number of pins - some of which we haven't seen over here yet. A collector who attended was kind enough to pass some photos to me (via an Olympin club member) of the Honav displays.
Thanks to Brad Frank for these photographs and he retains the copyright of all images.
The pins were displayed in a number of frames and I have reproduced images of the frames here with my comments as to what I think I can see.
This frame appears to contain pins that have already been issued
Again, this frame appears to contain pins that have already been issued
Once again, all pins in this frame have been issued, but interestingly, the Aquatics stamp pin is on display (second row from bottom, right hand side)
This frame contains the table tennis stamp pin that has not been released by Royal Mail (top row), the new 'pewter' pictograms and the alphabet pins. Notice however that there is a lower case set of alphabet pins too.
This frame continues the lower case alphabet pins. Then in addition to existing pins such as Lord Mayor, birds and guards, has printed version of the mascot pictograms (rows 5-8).
This frame seems to contain coloured logos in new sizes, a jigsaw set of the Thames and its bridges. In addition there are some existing sets, such as crowns, seaside and 500 DTG pins
This free contains more printed mascot pictograms and new Team GB pins (rows 5 and 6)
In this frame we can see more of the Icons of... series such as the kilt and bagpipes for Scotland. Then there is a whole set of Team GB and Paralympics GB pins. Finally at the bottom seem to be variations ont he Union flag in London 2012 colours as a dangler below a logo. I can't tell what the variations might be to create so many pins.
This frame starts off with more of the Union flag dangler pins. Then we can see the dogs. Row 6 seems to have pins marked 'pub quiz' and a dartboard. There's a rainbow with Wenlock holding an umbrella which looks like a slider pin. Following this are the different sized Union flag logo pins. Finally in this frame are what appear to be historic Olympic poster pins (London 1948 is on the bottom row, 3rd from right).
More historic posters, possibly in printed and enamelled as I can see 3 of one design (e.g. Tokyo)
This frame starts off with some type of flowers which we haven't seen before. This is followed by more mascot pictograms (enamelled and printed). Row 8 seems to contain Christmas pins (a Christmas stocking hanging from a basketball hoop).
This frame shows two varieties of London landmark pins which appear to fit together. They use the London 2012 graphical lines style and appear to be in a day and night version. These are followed by the mascot street scenes, seen only in John Lewis for now. Then comes some more Icon... pins. This time for England I suggest. Row 7 and 8 contain more Team GB and Paralympics GB. Then in the bottom 2 rows, we can see countdown pins for 300, 200 and 100 days in shard and mascot varieties. The frame finishes with some cat pins.
This frame continues the cat pins and then adds a rabbit and some birds, so I think we're looking at series of pets. These are followed by more countdown pins. Then comes a school set showing a blackboard and a lollipop man. There are more varieties on Union flag and London Landmarks in rows 3 and 4. Row 5 seems to show musical instruments. Row 6 has a series of Wellington boots. I think row 7 contains Icons of ... Wales (daffodil and Welsh dragon at least). Row 8 contains pantomime pins - horse, ugly sisters. Finallly the bottom two rows contain the new Team GB mascot - Pride the lion.
All in all, quite a set of pins! Lots of new designs. Remember, some of these may be concepts and not be manufacturers. I'm not saying all these will be real pins. All we do know is that they were shared with the public at the collectors fair.
Something else that was on display at the fair was the 'London 2012 Complete Lapel Pin Collection'. This is a set of all 2,012 retail pins issued in two cases. There will be only 500 of these sets issued worldwide. The image below shows the outside of one of the cases. I believe the pins will be issued in frames like the ones shown in these photographs.
Once again, thank you to Brad Frank for sharing these pictures with us.
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8 comments:
In total, the 13 frames contain 1,004 pins, and were it not for the fact that two are missing from the last frame (bottom right), there would have been exactly half of the 2,012 pins that are to be produced. From this, we can surmise that what we see here is the entire contents of the first of the two cases from the “London 2012 Complete Lapel Pin Collection”. Well almost, but I will explain later.
Having studied the pictures very carefully, I can see that the pins are mounted in numerical order of their reference numbers, which appear to be written below each pin (the text is possibly too regular to be pin descriptions). The only place where they are out of sequence, is where a "puzzle" set or a "joined up" set needs to occupy an entire row, and some of the following pins (numerically) are placed before the set in order to fill up the preceding row. For example, in the first frame, the "London at Night" set (pins 20 to 29) occupies the fourth row, but it is preceded by four of the six "London Market" pins (30 to 33), and followed by the other two pins (34 and 35).
In the fourth frame (third row) there is the "missing" snowman (pin 288) between a snowflake and one of the mirrors (pins 287 and 289). Also in this frame and the next, we can see the lower case "Alphabet" pins, which occupy positions 355 to 380, fitting exactly between upper case "Z" (pin 354) and the horses from the "London Mayor" set (pin 381). Notice also how the diversity - inclusion pins (387 and 388) are placed before and after the "London Mayor" set. In the eighth and ninth frames, there are twenty five logo pins with union flag danglers, and these occupy positions 635 to 659, fitting exactly between a double-decker bus (pin 634) and the first dog (pin 660). I would suggest that four colours and a Paralympic pin are paired up with all five variations of the union flag.
I hinted earlier that we may not be seeing all of the pins in the first of the two cases. We already know that two are missing, but there also seems to be a few too many logo pins. For example, in the penultimate row of the fifth frame, the first pin is the marching guard (pin 418) and the third pin is the mini union flag (pin 420). However, in between we appear to have a normal size union flag (pin 11), so I rather suspect that where a pin has not yet been manufactured, another pin has been used as a substitute. Again in the ninth frame (fifth row), we can see what appears to be a white logo pin, and two rows below there are three union flag pins (one of each size). A union flag and a Paralympic logo pin can also be seen at the beginning of the second and third last rows of the thirteenth and final frame.
Of course, if I’d have known that there was going to be a chance of purchasing all of the pins together, I wouldn’t have bothered collecting them over the last four years, as I could have just paid up at the end. No, of course I wouldn’t have done this, where on earth would have been the fun in that!
Paul, I wonder if I had made my comments anonymously, whether you could have guessed my identity?
I can't help wondering who will be able to afford to buy the full 2012 pins in one go.........
Wookie, I've heard figures in the order of £28k for the full set being mentioned, but this has never been confirmed.
Looking again at the images on my super-sized screen at work, I can see that my earlier suggestion regarding the logo and union flag dangler pins is in doubt. There is a disproportionate quantity of pink logos, and the blue or green logos all seem to have the same dangling union flags. Unless these are concept pins, with lots of substitutes amongst them?
28K ?!?
They's better hope that a few oil sheiks are coming then......or certain ebayers :)
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